Just one month after the FBI seized and shut straight down Silk Road the net website known as the Amazon.com of drugs, weapons and worse it’s straight back. Yup, into the annals of criminal history, that one has to be up there in the chutzpah department; it’s like the abilities behind your website are totally thumbing their collective noses at U.S. authorities that are federal.

Are Bitcoins and Silk Path Founders Aligned?

Even more shocking, brand new allegations tie Silk Road’s founder Ross William Ulbricht aka Dread Pirate Roberts until his FBI takedown last month to the still publicly unidentified original creator of Bitcoins, the digital money solely used to pay for illegal products and services on the old and now brand new site.

The allegations stumbled on light after two Israeli researchers one a cryptographer readied a paper that is soon-to-be-published claims that the FBI seizure in fact only got their arms on around 22 percent of the $80 million in commissions Ulbricht’s site had garnered from sales of an estimated $1.2 billion; product sales on everything ranging from assault tools to illegal narcotics of any kind and even for hit men services for hire.

Dorit Ron and Adi Shamir are the two researchers who have brought these allegations to light, incorporating that they by themselves have actually only been able to trace one-third of the total commissions the website pulled in.

Nevertheless the story gets more fascinating; the two experts have also been looking for a feasible connection between Ulbricht and ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, the shrouded and never-seen creator of the Bitcoin electronic currency exclusively utilized on the illegal web site, mainly due to its relative untraceability, since it is maybe not tied in to virtually any central banking system. Bitcoins’ value is completely determined by market demand, and lately, that demand has been curiously skyrocketing, with one Bitcoin being respected at over $800 and climbing recently. What does it all add up to?

Connecting the Dots

The two Israelis have been able to trace some paths back and now have made some connections between Silk Road and Bitcoins that are more than simply business usage. They are able to do so because even though real marketplace individuals may present anonymously, the transactions themselves are totally public. After getting their on the job an entire listing of all of the Bitcoin transactions made this year, the pair created their own graph so they could monitor statistically how users interacted regarding the Silk Road site.

The scientists uncovered a single transfer log that followed Bitcoins deposited into an account now known to be Ulbricht’s in doing this extensive research. That deposit stemmed from another account, created in January 2009, which placed the latter at very early Bitcoin system time; it had all just gone public a year prior. Even though the Israelis say they can not definitively prove that that early Bitcoin account was ‘Nakamoto’s’, there is good reason to think it very possibly could indicate an ‘investment’ of sorts in the 1st Silk Road site. Does this point up to a connection that is dark Silk Road and Bitcoins?

It may. Another compelling bit of data uncovered by the Israelis was a 1,000 Bitcoin transfer made in March of this 12 months. That amount would have translated to about $60,000; but with the current insane value surge in the cryptocurrency, it’s now about $847,000 worth at the time of transfer.

‘Such a single big transfer does not represent the typical behavior of a buyer who starts a merchant account on Silk Road to be able to purchase some narcotics (such buyers are required to produce an initial deposit of tens or hundreds of dollars, and to top the account down whenever they buy additional product). It could represent either large-scale activity on Silk Road, or some type of investment or partnership, but this is pure conjecture,’ note the researchers.

Even more damning is that the unidentified depositor when had some 77,600 Bitcoins apparently obtained through ‘mining’ operations; that amount would now equal about $64 million in U.S. currency.

‘ The path that is short found suggests (but does not prove) the existence of a surprising website link between the two mystical figures of the Bitcoin community, Satoshi Nakamoto and DPR,’ wrote Ron and Shamir. ‘DPR’ refers to Ulbrict’s Silk Road code name, Dread Pirate Roberts.

In certain ways, it turns out that Bitcoins’ perennial claim so it exists beyond the arm that is long of law has proved become correct. The scientists say the cryptographic design and veiled movement of the currency causes it to be a great deal more difficult for police force to seize it than, say, a drug dealer’s stash of thousands hidden in a household. The duo also speculate that there could have been a second as yet computer that is undiscovered to your Silk Road founder that the FBI have not yet had the oppertunity to locate.

Therefore far, the feds, not surprisingly, do not have touch upon any of it. And in case we know anything about anything, someone is in a production meeting in Hollywood right now, casting ‘The Long and Winding Silk Road’ for the new cable series.

Silk Road 2.0: How Were They In A Position To Get a Revised Web Site Up So Right After Power Down?

How could a high-profile, illegal website seized by the Feds be up and running again a month later? Apparently, where there exists a will, there’s a way. A few billion bucks at stake does not hurt either.

It took hardly a minute, it seems, for the anonymous previously active Silk Road user to email top that is former about the intention to obtain the site alive again. A forum called the ‘Vendor Roundtable’ had been created, and on it, the framework for recreating the site that is illicit.

The forum’s admin even put up a ‘Help Wanted’ ad for the ‘communication specialist’ an individual who would oversee and coordinate the pieces that are various associated with the rebuilding process. ‘You will be assigned work to perform according to what needs to be done,’ read the cryptic ad; no reference to what sort of money was involved, apparently.

And so, final week, voilà! Silk Road 2.0 appeared; the only difference had been in its absence, some competitive web sites had cropped up to fill the void, all run on the secretive Thor server. The new Silk Road is a cornucopia of illegal goods and services, from heroin to hit men like its predecessor.

‘Silk path was something that had appeal,’ a shrouded and anonymous user told CNNMoney in a TV interview where also his voice was disguised. ‘That made it simple for visitors to continue down that path. As long it doesn’t matter just what it’s called. as you’re able to persuade the majority of the biggest buyers and sellers to move up to the newest platform,’

Word regarding the street is in this revised version, information security will be much more closely guarded and can also be ‘baked’ into codes. The FBI did crack the site that is last so whether or not they are able to do so on Silk Road 2.0, remains become seen. FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbel who helped break the initial site did say that Silk Road in its original structure ended up being perhaps the greatest and most sophisticated criminal marketplace on cyberspace today.